They were wise in their day and generation, and they worked harder to fill the country with grain-producers than to sell real estate around the falls.  They soon had their reward.  The merchants were quickly provided with store-houses, rental values were kept low, every inducement was offered that could possibly stimulate building activity, and in three years the farming country was made to perceive that Spokane was its natural point of entry and of shipment.  The turbulent waters of the Spokane River, a clear and beautiful mountain stream, were caught above the falls, and directed wherever the factories and mills that had been established above them required their services.  Four large flouring-mills quickly took advantage of the rich opportunity growing out of this unique situation.  From two enormous agricultural areas they are enabled to draw their supplies of grain, flour, therefore, being manufactured for the farmers more cheaply at Spokane:  than anywhere else.  This circumstance alone exercised a large influence in giving the new town a hold upon the country districts.  These constitute more than a region—­they are really a grand division of the State, and form what is known as the Great Plain of the Columbia River.

THE COEUR D’ALENE MINES

Have reached a high and profitable state of development.  These mines extend over a comparatively limited area.  They are close together, and their ores, producing gold, silver, and lead, are all similar.  Their output for the last three years has been quite remarkable, and has placed the Coeur d’Alene district among the foremost lead-producing regions in the country.  Gold, associated with iron, and treated by the free-milling process, is largely found in the northern part of the district, but the greatest amount of tonnage is derived from the southern country, where the Galena silver mines, a dozen or more in number, have been discovered.  That minerals in large quantity existed in this country has been known for years.  But the want of railroad facilities for a long while prevented any serious effort to get at them.  The matter of transportation is now laid at rest, and within the last three years $1,000,000 has been spent in development.  The returns have already more than justified the investment.

Tributary to Spokane, and reached by the various railroads now in operation, are five other mining districts, at Colville, Okanagan, Kootenai, Metaline, and Pend d’Oreille.  They are in various stages of development, but their wealth and availability have been clearly ascertained.  Spokane’s population, in a degree greater than that of most all these new cities, consists of young men and young women from the New England and Middle States.  They have enjoyed a remarkable and wholly uninterrupted period of prosperity.  Some of them have grown quickly and immensely rich from real estate operations, but the great majority have yet to realize on their investments because of the large sacrifices they have made in building up the city.  They are to-day in an admirable position.  As they have made money they have spent it; spent it in street railroads, in the laying out of drives, in the building of comfortable houses, in the establishment of electrical plants, and in a large number of local improvements, every one of which has borne its part in making the city attractive.